Player Characters
A player character (or PC for short) is any character created by and role-played by it's creator. Players are allowed to play a PC for up to 2 shifts per event as long as they NPC at least the same number of shifts that event.
Players are allowed to have more than one character. A player's primary character is referred to as a "main" while other characters are referred to as "alts". Alts follow normal character creation rules. Players with more than one character choose which character they assign any experience earned to. Gear (or any other resource) earned by one character may not be transferred to another. Each alternate character should have a different character background and should generally seek to interact with different player characters than other existing characters you have.
Players may have any number of characters at a time, but can only have two characters active in a one year time frame. If character death results in a situation where you can't play a PC due to this rule, be sure to talk to a marshal about the circumstances.
Character Rules
Kingdoms of Novitas, like any story, uses characters as the catalysts of the plot. How the characters in a story interact with each other and the environment determines the mood and often the direction of the story. Unlike a normal book or play, the plot at Kingdoms of Novitas is fluid and changes almost every hour based on the actions of the participants. By creating their own characters, players personally impact the game world and the ongoing plot line. This multitude of variables makes Kingdoms of Novitas far more dynamic than any book, movie or play is even close to capable of!
The term "character" is generally shortened here and elsewhere from "Player Character" to simply "PC".
Character development is open-ended: there are no classes, alignments or maximum level.
Character Sheets
Each character must have its own character sheet. At the first event that you play a character you will get two blank character sheets when you check-in. If you have earned any experience points this is when you can apply them to that character if you wish to. Fill out the sheet, choosing any skills you wish to purchase with your available skill points. One copy will be turned back in to logistics to be put in the archives for safe keeping. The other copy you must keep on you at all times when you are playing that character.
If you wish to see what the sheet looks like, the most current character sheet can be found here:
Character Death and Retirement
When a character is bleeding out an enemy can also deliver a killing blow to hasten the process. In this game, death is not the end of a character though. A dead character can still be revived which will return them fully to life.
A character is considered permanently dead only under specific circumstances. Some monsters can cause permanent death. The final rest ritual can cause permanent death to a dead character. Lastly if a character is killed in combat and they are not revived before two convergences pass that character will be permanently dead. Remember the Saturday morning of an event at 6am there is a convergence. Between events there is also a single convergence and characters can permanently die during that convergence while out-of-game. In the event that your character dies after midnight during the fourth shift and is not revived be sure to talk to the plot staff about what could happen to your character.
Each player is allowed a single "newbie death" that can be used only during the first event that a player character has been brought into play. The plot staff will come up with some forced plot element that will allow you to continue playing the same character.
Players are allowed to voluntarily retire their a character if they wish. This can be done in several ways. A retirement could be a PIP where the player works with plot to kill their character in some way (or otherwise make them no longer playable - such as becoming a werewolf). Alternately the character can become an NPC solely under the control of the plot to use when think it would be interesting (and you are available to NPC). Regardless of what happens you can no longer ever choose to play a retired character.
When a player decides to retire a character or when a character permanently dies the player should fill out this form as soon as possible. In the form you will list your characters level, any unspent xp on the character, and any loot that is leaving play with the character. Half of that character's xp will get passed on to another character of yours (which could involve creating a new character to receive it), as well as half of the value of that character's loot.
The props for any loot the character had will either go to logistics (if the prop belonged to the game), or kept (if the prop belonged to the player). These props are no longer game items, but could be used like any other prop, such as for crafting. A good way to tell the difference between which props belong to you and which ones belong to game is, did you pay real world cash for the prop? If you did, it's almost certainly yours, if you did not it is almost certainly property of the game.
Sparks
Each character has a spark that represents the essence of their life force. A character without a spark can't benefit from any healing effects including but not limited to alchemy, scrolls, potions or spells. This means that a fatally wounded character without a spark cannot be revived.
When a spark is stolen the character who has lost their spark is said to have been "reaped". A character can only hold one reaped spark at a time unless they have a special ability allowing them to carry more. If a character holding a reaped spark dies, it will release the spark back to the person originally holding it. After 60 minutes a reaped spark automatically returns to its owner.
Only mediums are able to see that a character has a stolen life-spark. To check for stolen sparks, the medium must be close enough to whisper out-of-character, “I am a medium, are you holding any sparks?”. The person being addressed must then out-of-character give the truthful answer.
Medium's may also identify if a person is currently in possession of their own spark.
Diagnosis will detect the presence of the target's own spark.
Characters holding the spark of others are expected to remain in play to allow an opportunity for the owner to get back their missing spark.
Powerful rituals are capable of destroying stolen sparks forever, resulting in permanent character death.
New Character Amnesty
Sometimes players make new characters and they just don't work out the way you want them to. Skills don't feel right for the character, or sometimes the whole concept just doesn't work. When this happens Kingdoms of Novitas allows an amnesty to change things about a character once per character before the start of the second event a player plays that character.
If you take advantage of the amnesty, you get to keep anything you acquired during play, as well as experience earned. To use the amnesty talk to a logistics official at logistics.
Character Backgrounds and Concepts
Character names should only be serious names, never silly or insulting, and never taken from pop culture, history, literature or the name of another established Kingdoms of Novitas character. Staff have the authority to require you to change your character's name if they deem it unfit.
A good character background should be more than 500 words long and should contain "hooks" that can be used to give the game masters ideas to write interesting stories for you to experience in play. Submitting a background should be done by the Friday prior to the first event you wish to play a character at (or before the character has earned level 2). Doing so will earn you 5 experience points.
To submit a background use this form.
Players are responsible for having a reason for their character to be in Maplewood, the current setting of the game. It is hard to play a character who doesn't want to be part of the setting of the game, and this can be disruptive to the game.
New characters cannot be part of any social organization. Exceptions might be made on a case-by-case basis such as if a character has an appropriate role-playing skill. Keep in mind most titles are also associated with those same skills and can't be used without the appropriate skill. Players are allowed to attempt to create their own organizations if they wish by trying to establish those organizations in game through role-playing.
You are allowed to create your own hometown or village within one of the existing nations of the Kingdoms of Novitas, but you are not allowed to create new nations.
Characters should never have a burning hatred of another player character race.
Adventuring Groups
Creating encounters that are just the right amount of difficulty is an important part of the job game masters do. In order to make this very challenging job a little bit easier to handle, players sometimes need to organize themselves.
There are three concepts relating to collections of player characters that are related but not exactly the same. These are independents, adventuring groups, and adventuring parties.
Adventuring groups are important DURING games. Independents and Adventuring Parties are important for planning BETWEEN games.
The people who respond to a plot temporarily form an adventuring group. An adventuring group does not need to have a fixed roster of people, it can be anyone who happens to be standing around the inn at a given moment. What matters is that if a group goes off in search of adventure or to answer the quest of an npc they are limited to 6 players. This restriction ensures that game masters always have a rough of idea of how challenging a plot? will be. You are expected to respect this limit even if you aren't acknowledged by the group or they aren't aware of you. Which is to say if you tag along with a group that didn't invite you, and they are already at the group limit, if they then encounter something, creatures, a plot, whatever, you are expected to stay uninvolved in the encounter.
In order to help new players interact with adventuring groups, a group may bring one additional character that is under level 20, plus a further character under level 20 for each full 100 levels any player among the first 6 players in the group has.
Between games players will sometimes join together out of character in an effort to PC on the same shift so they can play together. We call this an Adventuring Party. Parties will often get preferential treatment when organizing special events (like dungeon crawls) so that the party can play together at the same time. Each party is limited to eight players. Character level has no impact on party size. When a player makes a new character they should not rejoin an adventuring party they were previously a part of. There are several reasons for this. Meeting new people is an important part of community building and avoiding cliques. Also because a new character should be distinct from an older one, rejoining an old party is going to cause many players to treat you much like the same character. Finally because there are weird power gaming shenanigans that can arise from changing characters and rejoining a group.
An independent is any person who is not a formal member of an adventuring party. Independents may collaborate with other independents or adventuring parties as they wish. They are free agents. While an independent might be in the same adventuring group as a party for an encounter, they are not formally affiliated with the party after the conclusion of that encounter.
Tinkering items that affect a "party" work on the items owner, plus 5 other people designated regardless of how many people are in the adventuring group or party.
Player Character Races
For information about the cultures of the races see the Kingdoms of Novitas Worldbook.
Playable Races of Novitas
These races may be selected by player characters for use in game.
- Humans
- Earthkin
- Easy and inexpensive
- Earthkin do not have any height or beard requirements, instead, the character must affix at least five coin sized gemstones to clearly visible areas of their body with prosthetic adhesive. Their costume is typical medieval European garb, tending towards dark colors and earth tones. Earthkin often wear aprons and jewelry of metals and gemstones are common. Their warriors fight with whatever they are most comfortable with, but they exhibit a general trend toward axes, hammers, maces and pole arms.
- All Earthkin gain Racial Language: Terran for free at first level.
- Elves
- Fairly easy, can be expensive
- Wood Elves must wear ear tip prosthetics. These must be affixed with prosthetic adhesive and blended with the surrounding skin using make-up. Their dress tends towards earth tones – mostly browns and greens. Warriors tend to use missile weapons, bows, or two swords, and avoid heavy armor.
- Their costume is long ears and finery. Elves must wear ear tip prosthetics. These must be affixed with prosthetic adhesive and blended with the surrounding skin using make-up. Their clothing tends to be rich and ornate, if not always practical. Warriors (such as they are) tend to use spear, bow, or sword and shield – but elves from The Realms are far more likely to make their way in the world as scholars, mages, or alchemists.
- All Elves gain Racial Language: Elvish for free at first level.
- Faekin
- Fairly easy, but expensive
- Their costume can reflect any background, or none, as they are wanderers. The distinguishing characteristic of a Faekin is colored costume contact lenses and a matching wig or colored hair. All facial hair must be colored to match the contacts, and a player must color his hair or wear a wig – you can’t claim your natural hair color is “red enough”, nor may you be bald. It should be visibly different and unnatural. Likewise, it is never acceptable to say that your green eyes are “green enough”. Costume contacts are a required part of the costume. Faekin warriors reflect their varied ancestries, and anything is possible.
- Faekin who choose to play a character who was an Elf or Earthkin before undergoing their change in adolescence are required to fulfill the racial makeup requirements of both races, although their race is always considered to be Faekin. Faekin who grew up as Earthkin will need to wear the appropriate gems with their Faekin contacts and wig; players who are playing an Elvish Faekin are required to wear ear tips exactly as Elves along with their Faekin requirements.
- Faekin may choose as their one free language Sylvan, Diabolic, Elvish if they are an Elf, or Terran if they are an Earthkin.
- Snow Goblins
- Moderately difficult and expensive
- All Snow Goblins share two distinct traits, white skin and stark white hair. Snow Goblins have long hair of pure white that they often intricately braid or attach bones, decorations, or trophies to. Players are required to completely hide their hair under a long white wig, or be bald. Players may not claim that their own hair is sufficiently white. Players with facial hair must completely cover it with a white fake beard and mustache, or color it white.
- Snow Goblins must also cover all exposed skin with white makeup. This need not be completely opaque, but must be noticeably lighter than even a pale-skinned person, particularly on the face. If the player chooses to not put makeup on certain areas, such as the hands, and instead cover them with clothing (like gloves) they cannot remove that clothing unless they first apply makeup to that area.
- All Snow Goblins gain Racial Language: Snow Goblin for free at first level.
- Individuals who wish to play a Snow Goblin must have their costuming approved by the Props & Atmosphere marshal prior to the first event that the character will be played.
- Drakes
- Very difficult and expensive
- Drake costume requires a reptilian or amphibian facial prosthetic with make-up to blend it with the skin. All exposed skin must be covered or made-up to match the facial prosthetic. Their clothing tends toward ornament and rich fabrics such as velvets and brocades, and can be from any background, as Drakes have enclaves and monasteries in every land. Due to the great difficulty and expense that goes into building a complete character and costume for this race, new players desiring to play Drakes are encouraged to seek guidance and advice from players who have previously done so.
- All Drakes gain Racial Language: Draconic, for free at first level.
- Individuals who wish to play a drake must have their costuming approved by the Props & Atmosphere marshal prior to the first event that the character will be played.
About Prosthetic Ears
For some PC races prosthetic ears are required parts of the costuming. These are some tips and tricks from the props and atmosphere marshal, Christina Mevec, to help you make them look their best.
- Blending: Elf ears should be blended to match skin tone. This means that the ears you purchase need to be painted or use makeup to effectively match your skin tone as close as possible. Additionally, the edge of the ear should be hidden by hair, ear cuffs, or makeup (see below). Note that this can be difficult, but can also look great.
- Silicone ears: These are more expensive than latex ears, however, they look WAY better and require no blending (if the right color ear is purchased).
- Places you can buy silicone ears:
- Aradani Costumes: Small surface area, small ears. These are the ones Dustan W (Jace) uses.
- A shop on Etsy: Larger ears. These are the ears Laura B (Stone/ Thaereon) and Stefan Bellows (Alareon) use.
- Another shop on Etsy. Untested. Look good in the link.
- Places you can buy silicone ears:
- Ear cuffs: A link to a picture of what they are
- Painting your ears: A guide
- Makeup to use: A regular makeup wheel. Something oil based so rain doesn't wash it off.
Character Advancement
Experience Points
Experience points are generally earned by performing activities that enhance the game. One of the primary ways to earn them is from your mandatory NPC shifts during each event. Assisting with setting up and break down, performing extra NPC shifts, writing post-event letters (PELs) are some examples of other activities that can earn you more experience. Experience points are earned by individual players, and can't be gifted by that player to other players. In the event that you have more than one character you may choose which character will receive any experience you earn.
A player will earn 1 experience point for each $10 given to the game, including the $30 sign-in. They earn one experience point for each of the first two shifts they NPC. If you choose to NPC additional shifts you will get 2 experience points for each additional shift you choose to NPC beyond the first two. Each player may also turn in 10 coin in order to gain 1 additional experience point once during each sign-in.
Experience points determine character level, which in turn determines how many skill points you have to purchase new skills. New characters begin at level zero with zero experience points. Each level up to level 20 requires five experience points. After level 20 each level requires an additional ten experience points.
Each character sheet has a box to record new experience points earned in. Don't immediately update your sheet with these points. Instead when you want to use these new experience points, fill out a brand new sheet, and on that sheet update your level with the new experience points. Take your new sheet to logistics to be approved and archive the old one.
Skill Points
Skill points are earned whenever a character gains a level. These points can be spent immediately to purchase skills or saved for later. Each skill lists how many skill points it costs to learn.
Characters should have a total number of skill points equal to their: (Character Level x 2) + 10